Tag: catholic

I recently got the opportunity to help represent CFCA at the 2012 Los Angeles Religious Education Congress in Anaheim. The event is sponsored by the Office of Religious Education, a department of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and is said to be the largest yearly gathering of its type in the world.

Daniela in the CFCA booth at the 2012 Los Angeles Religious Education Congress.

We regularly travel to national conferences to raise awareness of CFCA and our Hope for a Family sponsorship program, but having never attended this event, I was not sure what to expect.

Throughout the conference, the CFCA team interacted with clergy and staff members from various Catholic groups and organizations. We also met several vendors and others participating in the conference and discussed ways to increase awareness of CFCA’s work.

The best part for me, however, was meeting many current sponsors and hearing about the impact sponsorship has had on their lives.

One of these sponsors was Daniela Bradvica, a 19-year-old college student who has taken it upon herself to encourage young students to grow in their faith through sponsoring a child in need.

Daniela is trying very hard to launch a program for Catholic elementary schools to participate in sponsorship. It would encourage classrooms to sponsor a child in order to teach students about the Gospel call to serve people living in poverty, and to give them the opportunity to learn about a new culture through their sponsored friends.

Like many great ideas, Daniela’s has encountered some obstacles, but she continues to push forward with great enthusiasm and conviction.

I scheduled time while in the Los Angeles area to attend a meeting with Daniela at a local school to help promote her initiative.

Daniela was given less than 20 minutes to present her idea, and from the beginning it was clear that the school representatives had all but made up their minds that this program was not for them. Read more

What are Mass customs and traditions around the world? In this blog post, CFCA explores how sponsored children, youth and aging friends who practice the Catholic faith in Guatemala celebrate Mass. Thanks to Luis Cocon, our communications liaison in Guatemala, for contributing to this article.

The official religion in Guatemala is Catholicism. We also have Protestants and those with indigenous Mayan beliefs. Freedom of religion is practiced in Guatemala.

“Mass celebration is to remember the sacrifice of Jesus for each one of us on the cross,” said Yesica, 9, a child sponsored through CFCA. “Mass is our bread for the road to eternal life. I enjoy every moment of Mass, but especially the celebration of the Word of God and the Holy Rosary.”

Musical instruments during Mass vary depending on the church. Sometimes youth groups will lead the worship.

Yesica’s church has a choir of six, and they play instruments such as the kena (wooden flute), guitars and drums. Read more

Every Wednesday throughout Lent we will post a reflection on the upcoming Sunday readings. We hope these help you on your own Lenten journey. This week’s reflection was written by Scott Wasserman, chair of the CFCA governing board.

Suppose you knew for certain that someone was planning to kill you tomorrow. How would you prepare tonight?

Would you flee as far as you could travel as fast as you can? Would you hide where you could never be found?

Would you stock up on weapons, train how to use them, and recruit a bevy of friends to fight for you and protect you?

Flight and fight are natural responses to a threat. However, there is nothing particularly human about them. Rodents and reptiles do the same.

In the Passion account in the readings for Palm Sunday, Jesus knew for certain that unspeakable forces were conspiring to kill him. He knew they had infiltrated even his 12 closest disciples.

In the face of certain enmity and violence, he chose neither flight nor fight. He chose a third way, the uniquely human way of nonviolent love for enemies. Read more

Every Wednesday throughout Lent we will post a reflection on the upcoming Sunday readings. We hope these help you on your own Lenten journey. This week’s reflection was written by CFCA preacher relations manager Tim Deveney.

This year I am trying to start my entire garden from seed. It’s more work than a trip to the nursery.

Fortunately my 4-year-old daughter is enjoying planting tomato seeds, and her small hands and fingers handle these tiny seeds much better than my mitts.

She waits expectantly for me to get home so we can put dirt in the cups fashioned out of newspaper, place two seeds, water and wait.

Wait for them to sprout. Wait for them to grow. Wait for the crisp cool mornings of late winter to give way to spring’s warmth so we can plant them in the garden. Wait patiently for the plants to bear fruit.

Our Lenten path, like our lives, is filled with planting seeds and waiting for them to grow and bear fruit. Read more

What are Mass customs and traditions around the world? In this special blog post, CFCA explores how sponsored children, youth and aging friends in the Philippines celebrate Mass. Thanks to Gari Olavario, CFCA project coordinator in Legazpi, for contributing to this article.

Our mission at CFCA is to serve those living in poverty and recognize the God-given dignity of each person.

Most of our sponsored friends and their families in the Legazpi project are Catholic, and attending Mass every Sunday is their practice to praise and thank God.

Every Wednesday throughout Lent we will post a reflection on the upcoming Sunday readings. We hope these help you on your own Lenten journey. This week’s reflection was written by CFCA preacher Father Mark Lane, C.O.

There is a powerful message in the Gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Lent. God sent his son into the world not to condemn it, but that the world might be saved through him.

The point of our faith is to help people, to save them. It is a point I find easy to forget, especially when I am caught behind someone at the supermarket check-out or the door bell rings when I am watching my favorite TV show!

Again and again Jesus teaches mercy, acceptance and inclusion, especially for the outcasts and those called sinners.

Who cannot be humbled by the incarnate son of God who steps in between the woman caught in adultery and the stones of her righteous neighbors? How disarmingly simple and clear are his words to her when they drop their stones and walk away: “Is there anyone left to condemn you?” Read more

Every Wednesday throughout Lent we will post a reflection on the upcoming Sunday readings. We hope these help you on your own Lenten journey. This weekís reflection was written by CFCA preacher Father Tom Singer, O.M.I.

The first reading for the Third Sunday in Lent, along with the psalm, amount to “a spiritual GPS” for us: directing us on the right road.

Are we listening or stubbornly going our own way? Or, as we approach the midway point of Lent, is it time for us to “recalculate?”

It’s not too late for us to pray that God becomes our life’s GPS, our guiding force.

The reading from Exodus begins by proclaiming God’s clear and forthright introduction, “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.î

God is gracious and wants the best for us ó reminding us that, indeed, God is on OUR side. Read more

Every Wednesday throughout Lent we will post a reflection on the upcoming Sunday readings. We hope these help you on your own Lenten journey. This week’s reflection was written by CFCA preacher Father Jeff Kirch, C.PP.S.

Thirty eyes gazing at you in utter confusion. Fifteen blank faces staring at you as if you had just spoken a foreign language.

Anyone who has ever attempted to teach young people knows what “utter confusion” looks like. Seemingly everything is going fine and then suddenly a corner is turned and the world has been turned upside down.

This is true in mathematics, chemistry, English and life.

The readings for the Second Sunday of Lent offer us two glimpses of confusion. Abraham, our father in faith, was chosen by God and received the promise. But suddenly everything seems to be in peril as God asks him to sacrifice Isaac.

Peter, James and John, the closest of Jesus’ friends, walk up the mountain, experience the Transfiguration, and then suddenly are told that Jesus must suffer and die.

I am sure Abraham, Peter, James and John were utterly confused. Their lives, in fact, their very futures were in jeopardy.

There are countless times when that same feeling comes over many of us. Times when we are not so sure what God has in store for us. Times when nothing seems to make sense. Times when we are groping for answers to the perennial question, “Why?” Read more

Every Wednesday throughout Lent we will post a reflection on the upcoming Sunday readings. We hope these help you on your own Lenten journey. This week’s reflection was written by CFCA church relations director Larry Livingston.

The readings for the First Sunday of Lent offer some powerful images of cleansing. First we have the story of God’s covenant with Noah following the flood that cleansed the earth.

The second reading, from the First Letter of Peter, follows on the Noah imagery and connects it to the cleansing death of Jesus on the cross, while the Gospel offers Mark’s simple and direct account of Jesus’ purifying trek into the desert before he began his public ministry.

This cleansing motif makes me recall the times when, as a kid, I would find myself sentenced to cleaning my room.

My usual pattern would be to spend a few minutes pouting over the sheer injustice of it all, and then start figuring out ways to hide the mess so it would look as if I had actually straightened up. Read more

This is the last in this seasonís Christmas reflections from Larry Livingston, CFCA church relations director. We hope these reflections have helped you on your own journey through this time.

“And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.” (Matthew 2:9)

It is interesting to observe how differently families and faith communities deal with the “Three Kings” in their Nativity scenes.

Some place the figurines right there at the manger, along with the baby Jesus, as soon as Advent begins, while others keep them hidden away until the Feast of the Epiphany and only then allow their crËches to be complete. Read more